Bay Area elected leaders hoping to preserve what’s perceived as a vital service in isolated mountain and coastal regions have spoken out in support of a proposed California Public Utilities Commission decision affecting AT&T’s moves to scrap traditional landlines.

San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller and U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA-16) each issued statements in favor of the proposed decision issued Friday by PUC Administrative Law Judge Thomas J. Glegola rejecting AT&T’s proposal to withdraw as a carrier of last resort.

“I am pleased that the California Public Utilities Commission’s Administrative Law Judge rejected AT&T’s dangerous application to be relieved of its obligation to provide basic network telephone service to any customer requesting it because there is no other company willing to provide that service to everyone,” Mueller said in a statement.

“We will continue to advocate for all San Mateo County residents’ ability to choose landline service so that they can communicate when cellular service is unavailable, unreliable or down, especially in cases of emergency,” Mueller said.

Eshoo said, “I applaud the California Public Utilities Commission’s decision to deny AT&T California’s request to no longer meet its obligations as the carrier of last resort.”

The congresswoman continued, “Many of my constituents live in remote, hard to access areas where cell service and internet access is spotty, unreliable, and in some cases, completely unavailable. Many others are elderly and retired, living on fixed incomes. They rely on their landline service for all their communications. Maintaining carrier of last resort status ensures every Californian has access to reliable and affordable communications no matter where they live. This decision is a victory for them.”

Until and unless the PUC hears the item and votes to approve it, the proposed decision has no legal effect.

AT&T logo. AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. (AT&T via Bay City News)

In March 2023, AT&T California — the only carrier in the state that has landlines — applied with the PUC to be relieved from its legal designation as the “carrier of last resort” in targeted areas. The designation obligates a carrier to serve all customers within their territory, including extending facilities where necessary to provide service.

If its request to the CPUC is approved, the company can drop wires for most of its service area.

Mueller’s concern stems from the fact that many people in San Mateo live in remote coastal areas that get hit hard by storms. In the 2020 CZU fire, landlines allowed those people to receive reverse 911 calls from their county departments of emergency management. He wants landlines to remain available to those residents during a hazardous event, like a flood or fire, when cell service gets knocked out.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.